As part of their ongoing ‘Favela Painting’ initiative the Dutch duo Haas&Hahn (Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn) created an artwork that covers 34 buildings in the central square of Santa Marta in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The piece features colorful rays which emanate across 7000 square meters of hillside slum and the hope is that in time with more funding it can expand over an entire hillside in Rio.

Haas&Hahn worked together with a group of local inhabitants who where instructed by trainers from TintasCoral as part of the project “Tudo de Cor para Santa Marta.” They where taught everything from different types of paint to safety measures about working on scaffolding. As every wall, every house needs another solution, the painters learn to work with all kinds of material. During the hard month of work they received an education as well as a paycheck.

this impressive work expands inside the local school culminating in a blue and white design painted onto the floor of its gymnasium.